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disease + (4)
cattle + (4)

The UN's FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) have announced that they believe rinderpest, an frequently fatal viral disease that affects livestock and wild ruminants, to have been eliminated. This is only the second virus, after smallpox, to have been wiped out. The BBC and the Guardian discuss the story in brief, and Science has a slightly more in-depth look at it. The FAO themselves have put up an interesting history of the disease and its treatment.
posted by Dim Siawns on Oct 15, 2010 - 17 comments

Optimal control of MRSA's spread and diversity would involve attention to the role of pets and livestock, especially factory-farmed livestock (40 minute podcast -- no transcript, but here is the text of an interview that covers some of the same ground as the podcast.) Science journalist Maryn McKenna: "[Bacteria are] unpredictable and dynamic . . . We have few treatment options, so we need to be much more thoughtful." [more inside]
posted by cybercoitus interruptus on Aug 2, 2010 - 21 comments

Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat Will Change Our Lives
posted by jason's_planet on Dec 9, 2009 - 116 comments

The unprecedented slaughter of over 1600 of Yellowstone's bison this winter (resulting in a 50% decrease in the overall size of the herd) will go down as the largest wild bison kill since the 19th century. Despite vehement protests and bold acts of civil disobedience instigated by the Buffalo Field Campaign, the slaughter will continue according to the tax-payer supported Bison Interagency Plan - the goal of the plan being to prevent economic losses from the unlikely spread of brucellosis (a cattle disease) from Yellowstone bison into Montana and Wyoming's livestock. TERRA aired a gripping three-part 'fly-on-the-wall' film series chronicling the story: ONE, TWO, THREE. [more inside]
posted by huckhound on May 9, 2008 - 39 comments

Our Decrepit Food Factories. Michael Pollan on what sustainability is really about. [Via Gristmill.]
posted by homunculus on Dec 18, 2007 - 27 comments

The Last Days of the Ark: "We found that in 90 to 95 percent of turkeys produced worldwide, the genetic stock comes from one of three breeding stocks" but there are heritage breeds being preserved throughout the world. American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Heritage Breeds Conservancy. Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Rare Breeds Canada. Rare Breeds Australia, with by far the best Breed Profile pages. New Zealand Rare Breeds. Desert Heritage Breeds. Rare Steeds. "Eating these breeds may be the best way to save them", so, for shopping. [more inside]
posted by OmieWise on Mar 8, 2006 - 14 comments

Dude, sending money to other starving dudes is so...abstract. Give the needy what they need. Like ducks or something!
posted by holloway on Sep 29, 2004 - 16 comments

Delightful photographs of pigs, cattle, sheep, and horses by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. (Previous discussion of his aerial photography.)
posted by Wet Spot on Aug 21, 2004 - 10 comments

Buried within the $397 billion spending bill passed last night [Feb. 13] by Congress is a provision that would permit livestock producers to certify and label meat as "organic" even if the animals had been fed partly or entirely on conventional rather than organic grain. [from NYT] [more inside]
posted by MzB on Feb 23, 2003 - 26 comments

Maasai Present Cattle to US Ambassador
To mark September 11, people of Enoosean, a Maasai (Rift Valley Province, Kenya) village, have presented 15 heads of cattle to a visiting US ambassador, William Brencick. The presentation was organized by a Maasai medical student who was visiting New York on September 11.
    Brencick said the embassy would find it difficult to ship the cattle to the United States and had decided to sell the animals to raise funds to buy beadwork made in the village for display at a September 11 memorial in New York. (1)
posted by rschram on Jun 3, 2002 - 18 comments

McDonald's meat from antibiotics-injected livestock is now the primary source of antibiotics for U.S. children, particularly for uninsured youths from low-income households. "Unfortunately, some children still fall through the cracks in our health-care system, but luckily, McDonald's is there to lend a helping hand," Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said at a press conference announcing the findings. "So even if a child's family has no health insurance and can't afford medicine, virtually anyone can afford a delicious 99-cent Big Mac with pickles, cheese, and a heapin' helpin' of [the antibiotic] quinupristin-dalfopristin."

Wherein the bastards of the bactericidal, bloody, beef business bear badinage. Fillets (boneless strips of meat specially cut for roasting), anyone?
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Apr 26, 2002 - 44 comments

the arrival of foot and mouth in the centre of the lake district national park is horrific. One thing is clear; the Lake District will never be the same again.
posted by quarsan on Mar 26, 2001 - 11 comments

Guardian weblog has assembled a special page with foot-and-mouth disease links, mostly (tho not completely) Eurocentric. The links include one to an elaborate backgrounder (with a few graphic photos) from thepigsite.com.
posted by jhiggy on Mar 15, 2001 - 2 comments

I bet you didn't know you could buy livestock online.
posted by endquote on May 19, 2000 - 3 comments